Let's give a little love to the
Mets manager. Carlos Mendoza, he has been incredible this
year. Craig counsell, who and thank you, special. Thanks to
the New York Yankees for letting Mehndi. Go another
mistake by them. All great, Tony. All right, what stood out
to you here from Mendoza's first year with the meds? Well,
I'll tell you what I've always said about managers the X's and
O's the on-field stuff should be relatively easy, like we
should be able to find 30 guys who do it. Well, I know that doesn't exist, but that should be a thing. And I think Carlos Mendoza has
handled that part of it, fine. Fine. He's made some moves you
could quibble with because we made some great moves
as you could as evidenced by last night's game. I think he
has done that great. What really stands out to me is
how he has handled the clubhouse and it can be a
very difficult thing. Walking in
as a rookie manager, someone who's
never done this before into a club house, full of veterans
with big personalities, whether it's blind or Nimmo, Peter Lanza Etc, and he has had great feel for when to be the authority figure
as the manager and when to back off, and let the players lead a
little bit. Hasn't been totally in one camp or another. He
managed the right spots to kind of go one way or the
other. And I think that's that's what has really
empowered. These players to take on leadership roles to gel
the clubhouse. The way it has over the past couple of months
and that's one of the biggest things for the Mets, current
Vibe. I think he's been incredible my open and honest up
front, holding guys, accountable, not over matches a
first-year manager. Clearly you can tell him Stern
said this yesterday he should have been hired years ago, the
Mets got lucky that he wasn't all right. Danny how much credit
does Mendoza get for them? Let's turn around in their
season, well, he gets credit and then some he gets
extra credit in my opinion, like my troubles go back to the season opener,
right? That's series, and he's suspended, that's how they start
the year with Carlos Mendoza at the helm, he could
have let that Landslide. He could have, let that been the
thing that defines him and he didn't. And he took, I think he took hold of this
team and told them here's who I am. Here's who I want you to
be. I'm going to give you autonomy. I'm gonna be
protective of you but I'm also going to hold you accountable.
That's exactly what you guys said. That's what I've noticed.
When I get Chance to go to the games and go
to those press conferences, that is who he is and I think
that he is so likable and he's done such a fantastic job. It's
not easy. And the Mets have had a couple of tough times. They
faced a lot of different adversity this year. He's been the beacon. Like to
me. I'm like he's like like he's the beacon, you know,
you're like yeah up in the lights? Yeah. Alright. Okay. It sounds
like and doesn't hit us know. But I
don't judge me that I would say this
when you're in that kind of part of the Season where things
are struggling or when they're going. Well, he's been
consistent, you know, the personality is what you look
for in that. He doesn't get, you know, too crazy on either
side of any kind of lets the coke, the clubhouse, you know, handle themselves, or
the players kind of police themselves. I thought being open
and willing to change your mind, to line up a little bit
early on. That's never easy, especially with veteran players,
but he got the by in very early. When they land or
put him in a leadoff spot that to me, change the entire Vibe.
You know, he's handled a bullpen as well as he could
considering the weapons that he actually had in, have very good
Bullpen early on Consequently, you could question
some of the moves there, but now that he does have
a better Bullpen, a little deeper Bullpen, he's showing
urgency, which he showed last night, and he's shown during the
stretch. I think he's really been a lot better in his first season done. A lot of
first-time managers, I go back with like Willie Randolph when
his first year as manager, he had a lot of trouble with some
of these things that were talking about tonight. Carlos
Mendoza, I think he met you, it was over prepared into this
position. I think he's doing it really well, it's exactly right.
It's perfectly said. All right. Tony how about man Mendoza has he already
proven? And that's turns made the right hire to
certain extent. Yeah, I would say so we don't have even a full
season body of work. So I won't go too far. But yes, and you mentioned Sal the
other day. David Stern saying the Mets, got lucky. And if
you'd said that at Carlos, Mendoza is introductory press
conference. I probably would have rolled my eyes a little
bit, but given what we've seen here over the first 140 games, I think for all the reasons we
just discussed, guys, it does feel like they made the right
hire for this team. For this time, you can certainly Envision
Carlos Mendoza, being here for a long time. And Pat Murphy of the Brewers is
going to win manager of the year, like it or not. That
award is sort of like who people in the media think was
not going to be a great team. Winds up being a good team, the
Brewers fit that to a tee, but Carlos Mendoza is going to get a
lot of second place votes there. He's almost certainly
going to finish in the top third of that award. That's pretty impressive as a
rookie manager. I feel like there's a couple managers who
Joe Espada you could throw in that in that group is for sure
manners. But Carlos Mendoza waited a really long time to
have this job, right? He waited his turn and to me what he's done. When
you see the clubhouse, that's all you have to know. Know about
the job that he's done. You see everybody doing their
roles and, and acclimating quickly and bringing guys in and
pulling the right strings. Like he pulls the right strings
when he has the pieces in place to your point. That's all
you need to know about who he is. And if he's not with the
Mets long term then we got problems, the difficulties
first-year manager in New York the way the season started out
for the Mets. Also there's a very fine line
between holding players accountable and then commanding
the respect and gaining the respect and he's handled it
perfectly. I don't care. Who wins the manager of the
Year. Carlos Mendoza has been a great manager for the